USA Trip Days 7&8 - Yosemite Valley

We decided to spend the weekend in and around Yosemite Valley. To get there from the Lodge we had to pass through the Wawona Tunnel, which opens out on a spectacular view of the Valley and its main points of interest- El Capitan, Half Dome, Bridalveil Falls, Sentinel Rock and others whose names escape me now.

Our next stop was Bridalveil Falls. This is the only waterfall in the Valley that doesn’t dry up completely over the summer (the rivers and streams are fed by snow melt), but it had still slowed to a trickle.

El Capitan is a sheer face of granite which attracts climbers. While we were stopped to take photos, we noticed something flashing on the rock, which was presumably a camera lens or a bit of climbing kit. Zooming in, we could just pick out two figures on the rock (just at the top of the patch of rock that looks like a boot in the centre of the photo).

We ambled around Yosemite Village and checked out the (dried-up) Yosemite Falls before heading to Sentinel bridge, for a view of Half Dome and the Merced river.

We travelled back to the Lodge just as the sun was setting, which gave the view from the Wawona Tunnel a beautiful red tinge.

A leisurely start on Sunday morning meant we were back in the Valley by lunchtime for the walk round Mirror Lake. Like the waterfalls, the Lake dries out by the end of summer, leaving a bed of fine gravel which is a bit like being at a sealess beach. It’s rather a strange combination - the beach-like sand and rocks, the trees and the huge mountains surrounding you.

The Mirror Lake Loop trail took us round the dried up lake, which offered some fantastic views.

The fact that we were so close to the base of the mountains made getting landscape shots difficult, so I concentrated on the wildlife we came across. We saw a lot of squirrels and despite the efforts of a group of extremely loud and annoying Septics to scare this one off, I managed to get a couple of nice shots.

After completing the Loop Trail, we decided to head up to Glacier Point. The road closes in bad weather, like the snow of the last couple of days, so it was good to take advantage of the clear weather. From the 7,200ft elevation, we had a view of the whole valley, including everywhere we had walked over the previous couple of days. The sun was just going down, so we got the deep red light on the mountains again.

Posted on 10.12.08 to Travel. Subscribe to follow comments on this post. No comments yet. Add your thoughts or trackback from your own site.